PTEEOOLETES 319 



the bustards), the crop (present in Thinocorus), the gall 

 bladder, &c. Mitchell distinctly places both Pterocletes 

 and Columbse in the neighbourhood of the Limicolae by reason 

 of the arrangement of the intestinal coils. 



It is at any rate clear that the Pterocletes occupy a lower 

 place than the Columbse — that they have given rise to the 

 Columbae, and not vice versa. The justice of this view is 

 shown by the long caeca, the existence of an aftershaft, the 

 complete muscle formula of the leg, and by a few other 

 equally unmistakable characters. On the whole it seems 

 not unreasonable to look upon the Pterocletes as not far from 

 the stock which produced the Limicolse, which itself was 

 possibly not far again from the primitive gallinaceous stock. 



TURNICES 



Definition. — Reotrices, twelve. Aftershaft present. Oil gland tufted, 

 Cseoa long. Muscle formula of leg, A(B)XY + . Skull segitho- 

 gnathous, sehizorhinal, with, basipterygoid processes. Cervical 

 vertebrsB, fifteen. Sternum one-notched. 



This group of birds consists of the genera Turnix and 

 Pedionomus.^ It has been confounded with the gallinaceous 

 birds ; but the discovery of Parker that the skull is segitho- 

 gnathous, and further investigations into the structure of 

 the group — of which the most important is a recent paper 

 by Gadow ^ — have rendered it necessary to remove the two 

 genera from close association with the Galli. 



Of the two genera Turnix (Hemipodius) is European, 

 African, and Indian in range ; Fedionomus is Australian. 



Besides the external characters mentioned in the defini- 

 tion, which are common to both genera, Pedionomus wants 

 the fifth cubital, which is present in Turnix ; there are four 

 toes in Pedionomus ; Turnix has lost the small hallux of 

 the former genus. 



' Legge (P. Z. S. 1869, p. 236), from a consideration of some external cha- 

 racters and habits, was impressed by possible eharadriine affinities of Pedio- 

 nomus. 



^ 'Notes on the Structure of Pedionomus torquatus,' &d.. Records Austral. 

 Mus. i. 1891, p. 205. 



